latest Off Beat column, which will appear in Sunday’s edition, is about a hilarious (yet educational and insightful) series of fake political ads on the website FlackCheck.org (a spin-off of FactCheck.org, which fact-checks real-life political ads and claims).

Instead of tackling a contemporary politico, the ads target our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Imagine, if you will, that television existed in 1864 and Democratic candidate George McClellan and his allies used modern methods to take down Honest Abe at the height of the Civil War. The results are ugly, and demonstrate how close contemporary political advertising comes to satire. (At least the FlackCheck ads are meant to be satirical; I can’t imagine that the political players who pollute the airwaves these days are spending millions of dollars trying to be funny.)

In the column, I describe a couple of the ads, but you really have to watch them to get the full effect. You can check out the YouTube videos at left. I’ll offer comments on a few of my favorites.

“The Flip-Flop President?”: John Kerry and Mitt Romney have got nothing on Lincoln, at least if this ad is to be believed. It points out the apparent contradiction in Lincoln’s claim that he didn’t intend to interfere with slavery (he said that in his first inaugural address) with his action freeing slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation a couple of years later. It also pulls out a troublesome (and entirely factual) quote: “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” … Read More